Electric power drives modern society. Computers, light bulbs, televisions, appliances, iPods, and all sorts of other everyday devices need electricity in order to operate. The wiring systems of modern households are growing more complicated and more powerful every day. Businesses and factories have even more complex electrical systems. Unfortunately, as the individual need for power consumption increases, environmental and political forces are starting to create a burden on the energy industry.
Issues such as global warming and the pending oil crisis have Americans constantly worried about the effects of their individual effect in relation to national energy concerns. Some people are even trying to push themselves “off-the-grid” by only consuming renewable energy sources, such as solar or wind power. Carbon credits and carbon footprints have entered the common vernacular and can often be heard on major news networks as well as major motion pictures. But even with all of this concern relating to the conservation of resources and energy, it remains nearly impossible for a concerned global citizen to be able to actively measure the effects of their day-to-day energy consumption.
Some electric companies have recently switched to a pricing model where the price of a kilowatt-hour of power is constantly in flux. This constant change in pricing only serves to bring confusion to the consumer base, as a typical consumer has no clue what the going rate of electricity may be, nor do they have any clue what their current consumption is. The only metric of consumption that electricity providers give to consumers is in the form of a bill at the end of the month; not nearly enough information to inform consumers of their daily—not to even mention real-time—energy needs.
It should be readily apparent to those skilled in the art that the above situations and others of their kind do not satisfactorily address the needs and desires of consumers wishing to take part in conservation and other environmental activities. Further, these situations are leaving consumers in the dark about their energy consumption and expenditures, potentially preventing them from making wiser energy-conscious decisions in their homes and businesses.
More broadly, no system currently exists in which a consumer can effectively and efficiently monitor, understand, and control their personal energy usage in a home or business.
Other problems and drawbacks also exist.